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EOW Round 158: ORRERY CHAMBER - (Winner: Bnoch)

Topic: Orrery Chamber
suggested by agitpop

Brief: This is an open topic. It could be strategic, mystical, scientific, or whatever else you wish to imagine, similarly it could be ancient, steampunk, alien, futuristic, etc. Let your design and rendering tell the story.

- Please specify which image is final when you post your final in this thread! -

Deadline: February 24th

Please vote for your personal favourite artwork from this round. Remember that your vote should reflect an equal weight of aesthetic impact, adherance to the brief, and idea development. Help strengthen the activity by leaving criticism for the artist you vote for, and for any other artworks you can manage! It's appreciated as some artists may want to polish their entries and use them for their own portfolios or for other personal or professional uses.

Entries:

Bnoch

skoenig

JanJager

komugurakingdom

dragon4lunch

Description: This is a super-cool restaurant where you have to go up an elevator and exit in the center (inside the sun). From there you can chose between four different locations: The large restaurant in the center, inside the sun, or one of the planets. You walk there through the arms. The universe is a large simulation and on special occasions they even change it. Maybe they show old Star Trek episodes etc...

Homerid

daflom

Emokun

Mr. Gadbury

hyjaxe

pipobimbo

+oas+

Broken links (will edit)

Jaunay

Duman

***Your votes will be public***

Not up for poll but up for display for obvious reasons: A second entry by Bnoch.

Bnoch: Great energy, great concept. Only crit - maybe a bit too unresolved in areas. It would have been nice to see what the energy-effects around the spheres look like. I like your black and white piece just as much - the space there is immense and impressive.

skoeing: I think the turtle and the foot standing on it need to be rendered better, more clearly. The contrast could be upgraded here to. This would give the figure a better grounding. What do you think? Quite an ambitious entry - very complex.

JanJager: I think you shouldn't have used the masonry texture all over. It creates too much detail of equal value/complexity. It's a bit hard to figure out where we're supposed to look at. I like the little figures going around the spheres (horse for example). Would have been nice to see them rendered a bit better, more detail here, rather than in the wall texture and texture on the arms holding the planets.

Mr. Gadbury: A very solid concept for a general Ancient Greece mood piece. It looks like it's more about the vast space and the general experience of walking among the columns. The orrery itself looks like a secondary thought.

komugurakingdom: Maybe a bit too minimalist and generic. The piece itself though is quite well rendered - with your skills you could have made a more interesting entry I'm sure. I still like this piece for its tranquility.

Emokun: My favorite entry in terms of beauty for sure. The planets and the light reflected on the spaceship interior - great! I love the shimmer of the planets - looks like they are made of gold.
However, I don't see the orrerry chamber so much as just a cool space scene.

hyjaxe: Good entry - personally I'm no fan of floors that don't convince me though. I doubt those thin arcs made of earth (?) would last long. The sparks and lightning on the planet system look cool.

dafloom: Maybe my favorite entry - this has a great concept and shows an interesting place. It's a little on the abstract side, but it's a cool concept.

Duman: Looks pretty unfinished. I doubt you'd get a lot of support from a director etc. for your concept. It needs a better technical representation.

Jaunay: Fairly good, but I don't understand how the planets are supposed to be connected to the rails.

Homerid: One of the strongest entries here, well done. The ground texture was a great addition and ties the piece together well. This is how to apply texture everyone!

pipobimbo: A bit simplistic, but it does communicate the idea of the concept. I think there are giant towers with glowing spheres in them.

Bnoch - Your getting my vote for really bringing this concept to life. The composition is striking, the colour brings life to the scene and there's a sense of movement I can already envision in my head, the touches of light you have added really lift this right out of the page and into my imagination.
There are things to crit, but your successes in this image outweigh them. The large texture brush you use is good, but its somewhat recognisable now, I'm am not sure if that's even a valid complaint, but it stands out to me. There's not much else to say other than keep up the good work. Thanks for this inspiring image.
Its about time you showed us how you made this magic....and...send me some brushes...*wink wink*

Skoenig - You receiving a vote for trying something I consider insanely difficult - tough concept, tough perspective, tough subject The image succeeds in showing us your idea, the only complaints from my point of view are only technical.
There is much happening here, I'd say keep the scene relatively loose, keeping details largely to the large stature and the planetary orbs
I'd have loved to see some epic lighting here, the subject matter cries out for that dramatic, demanding lighting, something that should make us gasp.
Keep up the great work, very strong idea with good execution. I'd say if you tried that image one more time you'd probably nail it.

The Following User Says Thank You to Loakers For This Useful Post:

Wow, I’m blown away by the creativity and imagination that these convey.
I feel like a lot of you are out of my realm of critique, but I’ll give it a whirl anyway.

Bnoch – I feel at a certain point that I should not be able to critique you, since you’ve shown so much talent with this painting. However, in the spirit of improvement, a couple of things that are minor that I saw. 1. I think the orbs could be finished some, the glows are a bit loose and I think they could ‘glow’ a little more and make that transition more subtle. 2. I think that there are a few places where I’d like to see the light hitting the back wall, the light is striking and passing through the orbs and I think some semblance of a glow for a couple of them are not reflected there. In conjunction, I think the green orb needs a little reflection off of the rock, similar to what we’re seeing with the blue orb. Other than that, one word, magnificient.

Skoenig – Scale is magnificent. The picture does convey the scale of what’s going on here. The detail in the planetary orbs draws the eye, but I think the texturing in the rock could use a touch up in some places to make it pop; particularly bottom portion of the foreground. Also the caves look like they could use a bit of darker value to convey the depth better. Other than that just wonderful.

JanJager – Awesome, awesome. I love the color and gear works. The only critique I have here is that I think some more attention could be given to the orbs closer to the viewer, to emphasize the scrollwork done inside them, just a retouching of highlights (you’ve detailed the other orbs nicely). Also, the horse/fish seems a bit flat. Other than that, it’s a beautiful piece.

Komurgurakingdom – I like the flavor of this piece. Very ancient, but I think I’d like to see some runes or something inscribed on the stones, something to give us a sense that there is more to this story. Very well done.

Dragon4lunch – I like the scene, it gives off a great atmosphere. However, I don’t sense the orrery so much as a bistro.  I do like the “neon” waiter suit.

Homerid – Spectacular piece. Love the vines, the mood, the fire. You’ve captured the tribal aspect perfectly. The only critique I can even think of here is to possibly give the moon a bit of texture, it seems out of place being a white orb with no dark spots. This piece is spectacular.

Daflom – I like the scale, I like the atomosphere, a dirty city, gritty and ruined. It has good potential for an awesome story. There are a couple of perspective problems with your entry circle on the big orb particularly that needs to be addressed. The arch in the foreground also looks a bit off. I enjoyed the look of this painting.

Emokun – You’ve got the sci fi down. I enjoyed looking at this piece. The only thing I can think of is that the ceiling looks a bit too busy. The tiles being so abundant distracts my eye. I do like the interpretation, and I like the scene, beautiful.

Mr. Gadbury – Man, this painting feels like ancient Rome. I mean the space, clothing, plants, columns, etc. just echoes together in harmony. However I think that the orrery is dwarfed by the grandeur of everything else. It gets lost in the scenery instead of being the focus. Other than that I love it.

Hyjaxe – I love the cavernous environment! Some crits for this, I see some technology below the cavern floors, and supporting the orbs, but I don’t see it reflected anywhere else. I’d like to see that theme subtly hinted to elsewhere in the cavern. Maybe a console here or there, maybe some walkway grids. Also the arcing electricity needs somewhere to land, these people have technological skill, they would put some grounding rods somewhere (for safety’s sake).  Love your work.

Pipobimbo – I like the cityscape. I can see the orrery in there, but I’d like to see it a bit more clearly. The structure is obscuring it. I do like the theme continued throughout the piece, but the towers in the background are a bit flat. And the left tower closest to the viewer has the light hitting it from the wrong direction. Try to work on blending those tower bases into the cityscape and getting them to look a bit rounder with some vertical texture and you’re cooking! Great work.

Januay – I love the perspective. I like the detail in the wall piece. There is a scaling/perspective issue on the left side with the bricks, and some the left hand circles. The vertical part closest to the viewer needs to be shaded some more to make it look perpendicular to the wall instead of flat against it, like what you’ve done on the right side. I like what you started with the floor, would like to see that finished. Great work overall.

Duman – I like the concept here. The painting needs some work to bring it to life. You really need to get in there with those values and get the light and dark contrasts going. It looks like you might have used overlay or screen to do some quick once overs to get the lighting effect on the center of the columns. Try this instead, take your brush and pick into the grey that you have on the canvas, then use a flat brush to make solid strokes from the grey, then use a soft brush with low opacity (with white) to get a nice glow going then switch to a hard brush and white to really touch in the highlight effects. Once you have your total values for the drawing, then go back with an overlay layer and add in a hint of green. You have a good idea of where the light needs to fall, you just need to use the highlights to make them pop. Keep working, you've got good ideas.

Last edited by Flame_Unquenchable; March 8th, 2011 at 09:35 PM.
Reason: Added Critique